Blue Liar. Welcome back. It's the big blue banter. New York Giants football podcast. I'm Dan Schneier.

Joins always my ghost, Nick Vallado. The season's on the way. I'm super excited for week one.

But before we get there, we want to talk sleepers today. So let me tell you what constitutes a giant sleeper for the 20,

three season. A giant sleeper is someone who has not been discussed that much during

training camp in the preseason. A giant sleeper is somebody who maybe lost a little bit of

buzz in the preseason or didn't get enough buzz in the preseason in training camp. But we

feel like this player will outproduce the expectation. That's all a sleeper has to be. He has to be somebody who's not discussed that often or as often as the big guys. So you won't see K. Van Tibido. You won't see Azizzo Jal. You'll see those guys on the breakout pod. Daniel Jones breakout pod. But also, we feel like they can outproduce what the expectation is for them. So, Nick, I'll let you get started. Give me your first sleeper for the 2023 season. First sleeper for the 2023 season for me is going to be Dane Belton. Now, you and I have discussed Dane Belton quite a bit on the podcast. He's a sleeper because we know Jason Pinockel we had on the breakout show.

We know he's going to be the starter, whatever that means.

He's going to more than likely play the second most snaps behind Xavier McKinney. We know Wing Martindale loves to use a ton of safeties, loves to use seven deep at the backs at a time. And I don't know if he's going to use that as much, which was 10% last year with Bobby O'Caricay now on the roster.

But we're going to see safety's play.

Dane Belton is going to be out there, and we're going to have a bold prediction podcast, right? So maybe I'll save some of the thoughts that are in my head. He's a freaking pick magnet, man. And I feel like the Giants know how to use him in the short to intermediate zones, and especially with match type of coverages. I think he's very sticky. I think he's very deceptive with how he moves in certain directions to give the quarterback the impression that he's vacating a zone before going right back into that zone to intercept the pass that was going to a route that was coming behind. He's very aware he's very smart in those short to intermediate parts of the field. So I think Dane Belton is a name, especially now that he has a year under his belt. If we go back to last season, he missed the first game of the season with a clavicle injury. And according to him on a podcast about two or three months ago, he said that he re-injured the clavicle after the buy week. So his snaps got dialed back. We thought maybe those snaps got dialed back because of the Damien Pierce 44-yard rush that he absolutely blew. But it wasn't that. It was an injury that we were unaware of. Dane Belton is prime for a mini breakout type of season as a reserve player, but a player who operates in the sub-packages. That's why we haven't constituted as a sleeper.

And as always, sub packages for the Giants, especially with Wink-Barndale, and this goes basically across the NFL, but even more so with Wink-Barnedale, are essentially base packages at this point. The NFL is running more sub than base. So essentially, it's not, you know, it gives him that opportunity that you just discussed. He's on my sleeper list as well, Nick.

Anyone who's listened to me this offseason knows how high I am and his chances of being a sleep right. you know, it gives him that opportunity that you just discussed. He's on my sleeper list as well, Nick.

Anyone who's listened to me this offseason knows how high I am and his chances of being a sleeper. I went on talking giants a couple months ago, named him as my favorite sleeper at the time. He may not be my favorite sleeper anymore, Nick, just because of where Jason Pinnox's kind of risen to. But I still like everything you said. I think the number one thing that you that you landed on here is just that he has a different level of natural instincts for playing the safety position than most people you see when you watch the tape. And what is that going to lead to? It's going to lead to one, an opportunity for a defensive coordinator like Whitmerndale to scheme up opportunities for him, right? The scheming just doesn't happen only on offense. It's going to happen on defense, too. He's going to put him in robber type situations in places where he can be in a spot to make a big play on the ball, whether that be a PBA or an interception. So I think he could be that big play spark of the defense. I have my concerns from putting in breakout from a run defense standpoint. You talk about the Damien Pierce run, and that may be what ultimately holds him back from being what Pinoc can be this year, which looks like Pinoc's definitely assumed for now.

Things can change in season.

Rolls can change going into it.

Obviously, it seems like Pinoc has risen above him.

But I still think his ability and his natural instincts and pass coverage make him a really

intriguing piece that maybe the Giants

don't really have outside of Xavier McKinney in that secondary, including guys like Deontay

Banks and Trey Hawkins as well. So for that reason alone, I definitely qualify him as a sleeper

this year. There's one player who is older and a lot more experience than him on the roster,

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